Tuesday September 20, 2016(Ottawa, ON) – Canada’s nurses will start a donation fund of $17,000 for the Allina Nurses’ strike in a show of solidarity.

As proud members of Global Nurses United (GNU), we stand in solidarity with the 4,800 courageous members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) who have been on strike since Labour Day, over concerns of safe patient care, staffing and workplace violence prevention.

“Time and time again we are hearing of situations where frontline nurses struggle to meet their professional obligations to provide safe, quality care, in the face of excessive workloads and overtime, high nurse-patient ratios, and unsafe working conditions,” said CFNU President Linda Silas. “These are problems that have plagued our profession for decades here at home, and internationally. On behalf of Canada’s 200,000 nurses, we support our sisters and brothers on the picket line across the border who are standing up for safe patient care.”

This is the second time this summer that members of the Minnesota Nurses Association have been forced to strike. In June, Minnesota RNs began a one-week strike protesting unfair labor practices by the Allina Health chain to address RN concerns over safe staffing, workplace violence prevention, and demands for cuts in RN health coverage.

According the MNA, nurses began negotiating with Allina in February for a new three-year contract, but during the first six months of talks, hospital negotiators would only discuss the termination of nurses’ health insurance plans and not nurses’ proposals to address workplace safety concerns and staffing improvements.